From Local News to Viral Video: Antoine Dodson

Antoine Dodson is a Huntsville, Alabama resident who became an overnight internet sensation in late July after briefly appearing in a local news report involving a mysterious bed intruder at the Dodsons’ residence. Marked by his down-to-earth mannerisms and frankness, the video clip of Antoine’s interview segment was met with immense response from the YouTube community and beyond, spawning dozens of notable remixes and image macros, not to mention the extensive mainstream coverage of the phenomenon.

Spread

Following KYM’s blog post on the spread of Bed Intruder videos in early August, we were able to locate the viral instance outside of YouTube community (indicated as “what happened here?” in the chart below) in a Reddit thread posted on July 29th.

- In September 2010, the Gregory Brothers reported that they had sold more than 100,000 copies of The Bed Intruder Song on iTunes. In August, the Bed Intruder song reached number 89 on Billboard’s Hot 100 list, becoming the first of its kind to enter the US Billboard. In October, Dodson gave a live performance of “Bed Intruder Song” with Michael Gregory of The Gregory Brothers at the 2010 BET Hip Hop Awards.